Council issues update on major Shrewsbury regeneration works

The contractor in charge of a major regeneration project in Shrewsbury is doing a great job, councillors have been told.

The Riverside Gardens park, the first phase of Shropshire Council's Smithfield Riverside programme to transform the area between the River Severn and The Darwin Centre, is due to open in December.

Earlier this year, the programme was one of several infrastructure projects put on hold, with Shropshire Council saying it would only prioritise capital schemes that would generate income or improve the authority's financial position.

However, work continued on the park - funded with Levelling Up money from the UK Government - which Shropshire Council hoped would improve footfall, biodiversity and flood resilience.

Tim Pritchard, Shrewsbury programme manager at Shropshire Council, said construction firm, Morgan Sindall has managed the site really well.

"We've been very fortunate that we haven't had any significant flooding events to date for that contract, which has allowed us to release some of the contingency that we have kept in out back pocket just in case we had any adverse flooding issues to deal with," said Mr Pritchard, speaking at an Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

"Unfortunately, construction cost is outstripping inflation at the moment, and we did nearly go back to market because the price came in higher in estimates.

"On balance, we paid a little bit more than we anticipated, but I think that's a trend in the market.

"And I have to say Morgan Sindall are managing the site really well, and generally their quality of work is proving to be very good.

"It's great to see some really good work there and get the construction contract progressing to programme and within budget. It took us a little bit longer to get it on to site than anticipated, but I think that's proved well and the contractor is performing particularly well.

"We've taken some work back from the Morgan Sindall contract and working with the town council administration at the moment."

Following the park's opening, Shrewsbury Town Council (STC) will lead a planting programme through to spring, followed by ongoing maintenance and public realm management. There will also be a temporary open space that will accommodate small scale events and activities.

"We're very fortunate to have horticultural trained staff at STC," said Mr Pritchard.

"We always envisaged they would be taking the site on as part of their wider remit. They would pick up the maintenance and plant the site for us.

"The only exception is the large trees which come in under a slightly different contract."

Meanwhile, the second phase of the project will be a residential-led development. There are three options on the table: a townhouse-led scheme consisting of 61 homes, an apartment-led development of 127 homes, and a hybrid proposal of 90 properties.

"We're still working through this quite extensively with Homes England's help at the moment," said Mr Pritchard.

"I guess the biggest issue here is that the constraints we've got in the town centre is that the ground conditions are very poor and land values aren't particularly strong for us in these things. The market's not going to come and do this for us, we've got to work with the market.

"We're looking at different ways of overcoming some of these challenges. The higher you go up, the more you go in the ground. And we've got other constraints about how high and dense we can go.

"This layout isn't a definitive or particularly offered up as a great design solution, it was all about, what could we fit in there?

"I think we're very realistic that this is not necessarily getting the site into the black in terms of viability, but getting it to a close enough position that hopefully government agencies will come in and help grant fund us and gap fill that on some basis."